GUNMAN Raoul Moat said he “felt so much better” after blasting a policeman in the face with a shotgun, a court heard.

A man accused of helping Moat said the killer was “revelling in the fact he had just shot the police” in the aftermath of the shooting of PC David Rathband.

Qhuram Awan told police Moat had been holding himself and co-accused Karl Ness hostage after pointing a gun at them and ordering them to help.

Awan said when he dropped off Moat in his Lexus car on a slip road of the A1 near where the traffic officer was parked up, he didn’t think he was going to shoot the policeman.

Awan told police in a series of interviews after his arrest: “Afterwards he said ‘I feel so much better now’. He said ‘I got him straight in the back of the head, they will all be ******** themselves now’.

“Moat was enjoying the fact they were going to be gunning for him, he seemed to be revelling in the fact he had just shot the police.

“He said ‘There’s been nobody ever who has taken on the police. Everyone is scared of the police but I’m not. It’s the first time anyone has taken them on’.”

Awan said after shooting PC Rathband, they returned to the scene shortly afterwards.

Newcastle Crown Court has heard a police officer stationed at the bottom of Westgate Road, Newcastle, which had been closed after the attack, had spotted a black Lexus hours after the shooting. But the officer, who said his colleague was struggling to stay awake, said they had not been told of the significance of a black Lexus at that stage, despite Awan’s car having been caught on PC Rathband’s in-car camera.

Awan told police as they drove down Westgate Road they saw blue lights and turned off before they got to the road block.

Awan, a mechanic who had worked as a doorman at Legends, in Newcastle city centre, who was friends with Ness but had only met Moat once before, described the gunman as “mad, crazy” and told police “he will walk in while the guns are shooting”.

He admitted driving Moat round but said: “You are going to when you are staring down the barrel of a gun.”

Awan said Moat thought about shooting other police officers but on one occasion passed up on the opportunity to attack a passing police car because he was enjoying an ice-cream from McDonald’s.

When asked if he had tried to stop Moat, Awan said: “We made protests and stuff but he would be forceful. A man standing there with a shotgun, of course you are going to agree.”

Ness, 26, of Brookside, Dudley, North Tyneside, and Awan, 23, of Rowley Street, Blyth, are charged with various offences.

Ness denies murdering Chris Brown. Both defendants deny conspiracy to murder, the attempted murder of PC David Rathband, a firearms offence and robbery.